Panel polishing apparatuses and a panel polishing method

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a polishing apparatus for a panel which comprise a carrier, a disk which is rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier and a polishing mechanism. A plurality of trenches is located on the disk, and the polishing mechanism is used for polishing the panel disposed in the trench. The present invention further provides a method for polishing a panel. The present invention can polish batches of batches at one time. During the polishing process, the current panel is polished, and just turn the turntable to a suitable position to switch to the next panel to continue the grind process and repeat the process until all the panel polishing is completed. It reduces the polishing pause time between multiple panels and improves the polishing speed. It also avoids the blocking risk of the buffer panel zone.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a National Phase of International Application Number PCT/CN2017/113245, filed Nov. 28, 2017, and claims the priority of China Application 201711160755.8, filed Nov. 20, 2017.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of display panel processing technology, and in particular to a panel polishing apparatus and a panel polishing method.

2. The Related Arts

Generally, in the panel industry, in order to prevent the circuit from cutting by the glass edge of the liquid crystal display module or to remove the Lateral Crack, the Median Crack, and the avoidance of the person taking a piece of the glass surface of the liquid crystal display module and then sharp cut by the glass, the panel needs polishing process.

At present, chamfering polishing machines mostly require manual sheeting and pick-up. The carrying panel of the bearing panel adopts a single-body design, and only one panel can be placed at one time. The work efficiency is low, which becomes a bottleneck affecting panel production efficiency. Due to the inefficiency of the chamfer polishing leads to the accumulation of the diced panels in the buffer zone, which easily leads to the risk of blocking. Therefore, how to improve the production efficiency of the polishing machine becomes an urgent problem to be solved.

SUMMARY

In view of the deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a panel polishing apparatus and a panel polishing method, which can greatly improve the polishing efficiency.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions:

A polishing apparatus for a panel which comprises a carrier, a disk which is rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier, and a polishing mechanism. A plurality of trenches is located on the disk, and the polishing mechanism is used for polishing the panel disposed in the trench.

As being one of the embodiments, an inner surface of the trench comprises a buffer layer.

As being one of the embodiments, all of the trenches extend along the diameter direction of the disk, and every two of the trenches being adjacent are arranged alternatively along the circumference direction of the disk.

As being one of the embodiments, every two of the trenches being adjacent are spaced from each other with a certain radius along the circumference direction of the disk.

As being one of the embodiments, a rotation motor is attached to the carrier, and a shaft of the rotation motor is fixed to the center of the bottom surface of the disk.

As being one of the embodiments, the polishing mechanism comprises a polishing head which is used for contacting the panel. A first supporting arm is used for fixing the polishing head, and the polishing head is arranged above the disk and is movable along a length way and a height way of the carrier.

As being one of the embodiments, the polishing mechanism further comprises first conjunction portions, the first support arm comprising two first stringers and a first beam connected to a top of the two first stringers. The polishing head is fixed to the first beam. A first protrusion and a first chute along a length way of the first conjunction portions are arranged in perpendicular to two opposite surfaces of the first conjunction portions respectively. A guide slot is arranged along the length way on the sidewall of the carrier. One of the first conjunction portions is arranged between each of the first stringers and the sidewall of the carrier. An inner side of the stringer is embedded into the first chute and the first conjunction portion is disposed in the guide slot.

As being one of the embodiments, a spray mechanism is used for spraying liquid which the spray mechanism is fixed to the first beam, and a spray pipe of the spray mechanism is aiming at the end of the polishing head.

As being one of the embodiments, a positioning mechanism is used for acquiring the location information of the panel which the positioning mechanism is disposed movably along the length way of the carrier.

The present invention provides another method for polishing a panel which comprises:

-   providing a polishing apparatus which comprises a carrier, a disk     rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier, and a polishing     mechanism. A plurality of trenches is located on the disk, and the     polishing mechanism is used for polishing the panel disposed in the     trench; -   providing a panel in the trench; -   aiming the polishing mechanism at a surface of the panel in the     trench and start to polish the panel; and -   rotating the disk for aiming the polishing mechanism at a surface of     the other panel. And polishing the panel in the trench till all     panels are polished.

The present invention can polish batches of batches at one time. During the polishing process, the current panel is polished and just need to turn the turntable to a suitable position to switch to the next panel to continue the polishing process, and repeat the process until all the panel polishing is finished. It shortens the polishing pause time between multiple panels, and improves the polishing speed, and also avoids the risk of blockage in the buffer panel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional structural schematic diagram of a panel polishing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial schematic structural view of a panel polishing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a Y-direction view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an X-direction view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a panel polishing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, the present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the polishing apparatus for a panel in the present embodiment comprises a carrier 10, a disk 20 which is rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier 10, and a polishing mechanism 30. A plurality of trenches 200 are located on the disk for placing the panel P, and the polishing mechanism 30 is used for polishing the panel P disposed in the trench 200.

As shown in FIG. 3, as an exemplary driving manner, a rotation motor 40 is fixed on the carrier 10 in the present embodiment. A base of the rotation motor 40 is fixed on the carrier 10. A shaft of the rotation motor 40 is vertically fixed on the center the bottom surface of the disk 20. The disk 20 and the rotation motor 40 are connected to each other with the flat key and the flat keyhole. In other words, the flat key is provided on the end of the shaft and the flat keyhole is provided on the bottom surface of the disk 20 with for inserting the flat key to ensure that the disk 20 and the rotation motor 40 would rotate synchronously. At the same time, the disk 20 can be easily removed from the shaft when all the panels on the disk 20 have been polished. Moreover, the current disk 20 can be directly replaced, and another disk 20 which carries a plurality of panels to be polished could be loaded on the shaft. The polished panels could be removed from the polished disk and next back of panels to be polished on the disk would be loaded without affecting the efficiency of manufacturing.

All the trenches 200 on the disk 20 extend along the radial direction of disk 20. Each two adjacent trenches are spaced apart in the circumferential direction of the disk 20, and each two adjacent trenches 200 are formed in the circumferential direction of the disk 20 with the same interval of arc. The rotation motor 40 is driven by a square wave driving signal to realize intermittent rotation of the disk 20 so that each rotation angle of the turntable 20 is consistent. This makes the panel to be polished next can be accurately moved to an appropriate position with each rotation for being published with the polishing mechanism 30.

Referring to FIGS. 2-4, an elastic buffer layer 201 is disposed on an inner wall of each trench 200. The buffer layer 201 is made of foam or the like. The panel P can be well clamped by be the buffer layer 201 and the buffer layer provides a certain cushioning effect. Moreover, the thickness of the elastic buffer layer 201 on the bottom surface of each trenches 200 is smaller than the thickness of the sidewall on each trench 200 or the elastic buffer layer 201 is only on the side wall of each trench 200 to ensure that during the polishing process Panel P will not tilt, affecting the processing accuracy.

Specifically, the polishing mechanism 30 includes a polishing head 31 for contacting the panel P and a first supporting arm 32 for fixing the polishing head 31, and the polishing head 31 is provided above the turntable 20 movably with respect to the longitudinal and height directions of the carrier 10.

In order to achieve the free movement of the polishing head 31 to ensure that the polishing head 31 can be moved close to the panel P when the panel P to be polished and moved away when the disk 20 needs to be replaced after the polishing is completed, the polishing mechanism in this embodiment includes first conjunction portions 33. The first supporting arm 32 is like a door shape and set up along the two sides of the carrier. The first supporting arm 32 includes two first stringers 321 and a first beam 322 connected to a top of the two first stringers 321. The polishing head 31 is fixed to the first beam 322. A first protrusion 331 and a first chute along a length way of the first conjunction portions 33 are arranged in perpendicular to two opposite surfaces of the first conjunction portions 33 respectively. A guide slot 11 is arranged along the length way on the sidewall of the carrier 10. One of the first conjunction portions 33 is arranged between each of the first stringers 321 and the sidewall of the carrier 10. The inner side of the stringer 321 is embedded into the first chute and the first conjunction portion 33 is disposed in the guide slot 11. Based on this design, first conjunction portion 33 of the present embodiment can be horizontally slid relative to the carrier 10 and the first supporting arm 32 can slide up and down relative to the first conjunction portion 33 to achieve the movement of the first supporting arm 32 in multiple directions.

Considering the debris of the polishing process would impact the following polishing process, a spray mechanism 50 used for spraying liquid is fixed to the first beam 322 and a plurality of spray pipe 51 of the spray mechanism 50 is aiming at the end of the polishing head 31. In the process of panel polishing, the cleaning liquid can be sprayed to the surface of the panel in time through the spray pipe 51 to remove the glass scraps remaining on the surface of the panel. Each of the trenches 200 on the disk 20 of the present embodiment runs through the side wall of the disk 20 for cleaning the glass debris and cleaning liquid out, and preventing the liquid from staying in the trench 200.

In order to ensure that the polishing head 31 of the polishing mechanism 30 can be accurately positioned to the position to be polished on the surface of the panel P on the disk 20, the surface of the panel P is provided with an alignment mark. The panel polishing apparatus of this embodiment further includes a positioning mechanism 60 for detecting the alignment mark on the panel P, and the positioning mechanism 60 is provided above the carrier 10 movably in the longitudinal direction of the carrier 10. When the disk 20 is rotated to the corresponding position, the positioning mechanism 60 moves to just above the disk 20 and captures the position coordinates of the alignment mark on the panel P. The polishing head 31 of the polishing mechanism 30 is moved to just above the position coordinate of the surface of the corresponding panel P for polishing at last.

As shown in FIG. 4, the positioning mechanism 60 includes an alignment module 61 for capturing an alignment mark on the panel P, a second supporting arm 62 for securing the alignment module 61, a second conjunction portion 63 disposed between the second supporting arm 62 and disk 10. The second supporting arm 62 includes two second stringers 621 on two sides of the supporting arm 62 and a second beam 622 connected to the ends of the two second stringers 621. The alignment module 61 is fixed to the second beam 622. A second protrusion 631 and a second chute along a length way of the second conjunction portion 63 are arranged in perpendicular to two opposite surfaces of the second conjunction portion 63 respectively. The second conjunction portion 63 is arranged between each of the second stringers 621 and the sidewall of the carrier 10. The inner side of the stringer 621 is embedded into the second chute. Based on this design, and the alignment module 63 can slide up and down without affecting the polishing mechanism 30.

As shown in FIG. 5, correspondingly, the panel polishing method provided by the present invention comprises:

In S01, the panel P is placed in the trench 200 of the carrier 10.

An elastic cushioning layer 201 is provided on the inner surface of the trench 200 to protect and clamp the panel. The panel P is radially arranged around the center of the disk 20 with a predetermined arc interval between two adjacent panels P

S02, the polishing mechanism 30 is aligned with the corresponding surface on the panel P in one of the trenches 200 to start polishing.

When the polishing mechanism 30 is aligned with the panel P, the alignment mechanism 60 is first moved to the top of the disk 20 along the length direction of the carrier 10, and then the position coordinates of the alignment mark on the current panel P are captured by the alignment module 61. The polishing head 31 of the mechanism 30 moves to the position directly above the corresponding position coordinates and descends to contact the surface of the panel P to start the polishing process. During the polishing process, the cleaning solution may be sprayed on the polishing area on the surface of the panel P by the spray mechanism 50 to enhance the polishing effect. Finally, air-drying mechanism may be used to blow air toward the polishing area to air-dry the residual cleaning liquid

S03. After the current panel P is polished, turn the disk 20 to align the polishing mechanism 30 with the corresponding surface of the panel P in the adjacent trench 200 and continue polishing until all the panel P in the trenches 200 of the disk 20 have been polished.

After polishing the current panel P, the polishing head 31 of the polishing mechanism 30 is longitudinally lifted and removed, and then the disk 20 is rotated to move the next panel P to the position to be polished. Then, the alignment module 61 captures the coordinates information of the alignment mark of the panel P. The polishing head 31 moves to just above the corresponding position coordinate and descends to come into contact with the surface of the panel P to start the polishing process again. Until all the panels P in all the trenches 200 of the disk 20 have been polished, the disk 20 can be replaced with another one to continue the panel polishing process.

To sum up, the present invention can polish a batch of panels at one time. When the current panel is polished, the disk would be rotated to a suitable position and the next panel would be polished in the following process. The procedure will be repeated till all the panels on the disk have been polished, this reduces the polishing pause time between multiple panels, and improves the polishing speed. At the same time, because of using the positioning mechanism to position the polishing head and the spray mechanism to assist the process, the polishing head of the invention provides a high positioning accuracy and better polishing effect.

The above descriptions are merely specific implementation manners of the present application. It should be noted that those skilled in the art may make some improvements and modifications without departing from the principle of the present application. These improvements and modifications should be regarded as the scope of protection of this application. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A polishing apparatus for a panel, comparing: a carrier; a disk, being rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier; and a polishing mechanism, wherein a plurality of trenches are located on the disk, and the polishing mechanism is used for polishing the panel disposed in the trench.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an inner surface of the trench comprises a buffer layer.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein all of the trenches extends along the diameter direction of the disk, and every two of the trenches being adjacent are arranged alternatively along the circumference direction of the disk.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein each of the trenches is along a sidewall of the disk.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein every two of the trenches being adjacent are spaced from each other with a certain radius along the circumference direction of the disk.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a rotation motor is attached to the carrier and a shaft of the rotation motor is fixed to the center of the bottom surface of the disk.
 7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the polishing mechanism comprises a polishing head used for contacting the panel, a first supporting arm used for fixing the polishing head, and the polishing head is arranged above the disk and is movable along a length way and a height way of the carrier.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the polishing mechanism further comprises first conjunction portions; the first support arm comprises two first stringers and a first beam connected to a top of the two first stringers; the polishing head is fixed to the first beam; a first protrusion and a first chute along a length way of the first conjunction portions are arranged in perpendicular to two opposite surfaces of the first conjunction portions respectively; a guide slot is arranged along the length way on the sidewall of the carrier; one of the first conjunction portions is arranged between each of the first stringers and the sidewall of the carrier; an inner side of the stringer is embedded into the first chute and the first conjunction portions is disposed in the guide slot.
 9. The apparatus according to claim 7 further comprising: a spray mechanism used for spraying liquid, wherein the spray mechanism is fixed to the first beam and a spray pipe of the spray mechanism is aiming at the end of the polishing head.
 10. The apparatus according to claim 7 further comprising a positioning mechanism used for acquiring the location information of the panel, wherein the positioning mechanism is disposed movably along the length way of the carrier.
 11. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the polishing mechanism comprises a polishing head used for contacting the panel, a first supporting arm used for fixing the polishing head, and the polishing head is arranged above the disk and is movable along a length way and a height way of the carrier.
 12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the polishing mechanism further comprises first conjunction portions; the first support arm comprises two first stringers and a first beam connected to a top of the two first stringers; the polishing head is fixed to the first beam; a first protrusion and a first chute along a length way of the first conjunction portions are arranged in perpendicular to two opposite surfaces of the first conjunction portions respectively; a guide slot is arranged along the length way on the sidewall of the carrier; one of the first conjunction portions is arranged between each of the first stringers and the sidewall of the carrier; an inner side of the stringer is embedded into the first chute and the first conjunction portions is disposed in the guide slot.
 13. The apparatus according to claim 11 further comprising: a spray mechanism used for spraying liquid, wherein the spray mechanism is fixed to the first beam and a spray pipe of the spray mechanism is aiming at the end of the polishing head.
 14. The apparatus according to claim 11 further comprising a positioning mechanism used for acquiring the location information of the panel, wherein the positioning mechanism is disposed movably along the length way of the carrier.
 15. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the polishing mechanism comprises a polishing head used for contacting the panel, a first supporting arm used for fixing the polishing head, and the polishing head is arranged above the disk and is movable along a length way and a height way of the carrier.
 16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the polishing mechanism further comprises first conjunction portions; the first support arm comprises two first stringers and a first beam connected to a top of the two first stringers; the polishing head is fixed to the first beam; a first protrusion and a first chute along a length way of the first conjunction portions are arranged in perpendicular to two opposite surfaces of the first conjunction portions respectively; a guide slot is arranged along the length way on the sidewall of the carrier; one of the first conjunction portions is arranged between each of the first stringers and the sidewall of the carrier; an inner side of the stringer is embedded into the first chute and the first conjunction portions is disposed in the guide slot.
 17. The apparatus according to claim 15 further comprising: a spray mechanism used for spraying liquid, wherein the spray mechanism is fixed to the first beam and a spray pipe of the spray mechanism is aiming at the end of the polishing head.
 18. The apparatus according to claim 15 further comprising a positioning mechanism used for acquiring the location information of the panel, wherein the positioning mechanism is disposed movably along the length way of the carrier.
 19. A polishing apparatus for a panel, comparing: a carrier; a disk, rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier; a spray mechanism used for spraying liquid; a polishing mechanism, wherein a plurality of trenches are located on the disk, and the polishing mechanism is used for polishing the panel disposed in the trench, each of the trenches on the disk runs through the side wall of the disk and the spray mechanism is fixed to the first beam and a spray pipe of the spray mechanism is aiming at the end of the polishing head.
 20. A method for polishing a panel, comprising: providing a polishing apparatus, wherein the polishing apparatus comprises a carrier, a disk rotatably arranged on a top surface of the carrier; and a polishing mechanism, wherein a plurality of trenches are located on the disk, and the polishing mechanism is used for polishing the panel disposed in the trench; providing a panel in a trench; aiming the polishing mechanism at a surface of the panel in the trench and polishing the panel; and rotating the disk for aiming the polishing mechanism at a surface of the other panel and polishing the panel till all panels in the trench are polished. 